County closes mortgage-record room; mold suspected

Saturday

Aug 29, 2009 at 2:00 AM

GOSHEN — County officials have temporarily closed a records room in the basement of the Orange County Government Center, where a substance believed to be mold was found on the cloth covers of old mortgage books.

BY CHRIS McKENNA

GOSHEN — County officials have temporarily closed a records room in the basement of the Orange County Government Center, where a substance believed to be mold was found on the cloth covers of old mortgage books.

The county took that step as a health precaution Friday after initially responding to the discovery by posting a warning sign and offering surgical masks to county employees and visitors working in the basement.

County Clerk Donna Benson, whose office runs the records room, said about 10 books had a "significant amount" of apparent mold on the covers, while another 25 to 30 books might be affected to a lesser degree.

Public works employees brought dehumidifiers into the room Friday, and the county enlisted its environmental consultant — Environmental Management Solutions of New York — to identify the substance and suggest how to proceed, officials said.

The Government Center in Goshen is notorious for its roof leaks, which cause workers to deploy pails to catch dripping rain water. But those leaks rarely seep below the third floor and never make their way into the basement, she said.

She suspects the culprit is damp air from the extended spell of rain and brutal humidity this summer. Her office ran dehumidifiers in a nearby map room, but not in the stacks where old mortgages are stored.

"In the large number of years that I've been here, we've never had this," Benson said.

The mortgages in the affected books probably date back to the early 20th century and are replicated on two types of microfilm, so no records would be lost if any books are too damaged to save, Benson said.